Music is a mystery for people who play it, write it, listen to it, and write about it. The only thing I can really do when I try to say something about music is assume.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Violin and Piano Concert February 28th 2014

I'm extremely excited about this year's WHAM concert because the music is so wonderful (and so rare). John David and I played Amanda Maier's Sonata a couple of years ago, and are enjoying working on her Six Pieces a great deal. Clara Kathleen Rogers, who performed as an opera singer under the name Clara Doria, was a British composer who studied in Leipzig and settled in Boston. Her Sonata had its premiere at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, and, like Amanda Maier's music, has only recently come back into the repertoire. With only a few exceptions, Emilie Mayer's music has been hidden in libraries since her death in 1893. Her Violin Sonata is a terrific piece that, had it been known during the 20th century (it and her many other compositions have been sleeping silently in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek), would probably have been in the repertoire of many musicians. The American composer Florence B. Price was the first African American woman to have a piece performed by a major American Orchestra. Her "Adoration," from 1951 is one of her last works. She wrote it for organ, with an indication to use a violin stop for the middle section. I took it as a cue to make a transcription.

I had the privilege to discover Florence B. Price in grad school and performed one of her arts songs on my recital. I'm glad there are peole performing her music out there! She is truly a lost American treasure.

I am active as a composer, a violist, a violinist, a recorder player, and as a teacher. I began my professional musical life as a flutist, and spent a lot of quality time as a baroque flutist, but I no longer have my baroque flute. Now my modern flute spends most of its time tucked away in a drawer, while my violin, viola, and my viola d'amore are often tucked under my chin.